With The Stock Market Slump Nomura Holdings (NMR) Q2 Profit Drops

Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR), Japan's biggest brokerage, has reported that its net profit dropped 96 percent as it struggled to make money from trading and underwriting fees amid a persistent stock market slump.

Nomura Holdings (NMR), which is expanding in Asia, Europe and the United States following its purchase of part of Lehman Brothers, booked a 1.05 billion yen ($13 million) net profit for the July-September quarter, compared with 27.7 billion yen a year earlier.

The result missed the average estimate of a 5.6 billion yen profit that was predicted by several analysts.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei share average was also flat during the quarter and has stagnated as investors who pulled back following the European debt crisis continued to steer clear of Japanese stocks.

Sluggish trading has also hurt Nomura Holding’s (NMR) global rivals such as and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), which saw its net trading revenue slump by a third in its latest quarter.

Analysts believe that for the financial year up to March, Nomura Holding's (NMR) net profit would total 42.6 billion yen. However, shares of Nomura closed down 3 percent before the earnings announcement, underperforming the securities sub-index.